UK solar hits 11.5GW, up 19% in 2016

Installed solar PV capacity increased 19% to 11.46GW in the year to December 2016, latest government data shows, with a further 3GW in the planning system.

Roughly half of that increase (1.11GW) arrived in March as investors in large, ground-mounted schemes rushed to beat the closure of the renewables obligation (RO) subsidy scheme.

To date, around half of the UK’s overall solar PV capacity (5.45GW) is made up by very large schemes with capacity greater than 5MW. Around a fifth (2.46GW) comes from domestic scale installations (schemes smaller than 4kW).